Stories of the Ages
by Sleeping-force's-inside
Summary: Collections of One-shots set in my 'Return to Magic'-Universe. Chapter 5: Faragonda's Reaction to Hagen's death R & E & R Requests are Welcomed!
1. Daria and Darina's Birth

**Category:**** Winx Club**

**Rating:**** T**

**Couples:**** Faragonda/Baltor**

**Warnings:**** AU**

**Chapter:**** Darina & Daria's Birth**

**Copyright:**** © characters and places by Iginio; © Plot and OC by me**

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Cian had told him an important call had come in. Baltor had answered it, to find that it was Sven on the other side of the line: Faragonda had gone into labor. His heart had stopped then. Despite the fact that the Dragon had assured him she was in no danger from dying in childbirth after the strange occurrence when he had revived her, Baltor had been worried she would still be lost to him. And that was a thought he never wished to entertain again.

The worst was that he couldn't actually teleport there. He was quite literally on the other side of the States, since his children had apparently decided to come early, and it would be strange if he appeared not ten minutes after receiving the call. He was forced to take the plane. At least Cian let him leave once he told him.

It was many terrible hours later that he arrived at the small hospital where Faragonda had been brought to when she had started to have contractions. His usual calm had long gone out the proverbial window as he entered the white building. Thankfully Claire was waiting for him in the foyer, because he doubted he'd have the patience to actually ask someone where his wife was.

The blond led him through the hallways, before stopping in front of a door. She led him enter first.

He stop dead in his tracks at what greeted him: Faragonda was resting in a pristine white bed and held two little bundles in her arms. When he entered she looked up and despite her exhaustion, she smiled that wonderful smile at him.

He hesitated, only slowly approaching the bed. He didn't even notice how the others rose and left the room. He carefully sank down on the side of the bed, his eyes shifting from the fairy to the two babies.

"You're a father, beloved." She softly said. "Two daughters."

"I…" He couldn't speak and opted to pushing the warm blankets down, looking into those tiny faces.

"Do you want to hold her?" Faragonda smiled at him.

"Hold her?" He echoed, looking uncertainly at the tiny human in his wife's arm. So frail…

"I am certain you won't drop her." She carefully laid one of them on her legs, before offering the other to the man at her side. "Come."

So frail. The little girl was so frail. One wrong move and she would be broken forever. "I'm sorry I wasn't there."

"It's all right, you're here now." Faragonda smiled warmly. "Do you have a name-preference?"

He tore his eyes away from the sleeping child to look at her. "I… no, I do not…"

"I have some: Daria and Darina."

"And who is who?" He looked down again, carefully touching the small, soft cheek.

"Darina is the one I'm holding." Faragonda leaned towards him a bit, her voice becoming a low whisper. "She has my power, Daria has yours."

He nodded, more focused on the now moving child in his arms. And then she opened her eyes and Baltor knew he was hopelessly lost. She had her mother's eyes: those deep, deep oceans into which he could stare for hours on end without growing bored or tired. And those very same eyes now looked at him, before the child started to gurgle in joy, her tiny face becoming one big smile.

How could he, a demon of the darkest kind, have created something so utterly perfect? No jewelry could compete with the treasure he now held in his arms. Not even the Dragonfire could match the warmth that now so thoroughly flooded him.

His eyes, normally as cold as the ice whose color they shared, shone with warmth as he looked up at the woman who had done what no one else had done before: truly conquered him. And more importantly, had given him gifts unlike any other he could ever receive.

He might never be able to show his emotions, but he would love all three of them with his entire being, he could already tell as much. His daughters, his little girls, would want for nothing.


	2. Naming of Faragonda

**Category:**** Winx Club**

**Rating:**** T **

**Couples:**** Griffin/Codatorta**

**Warnings:**** AU**

**Chapter:**** Naming of Faragonda**

**Copyright:**** © characters and places by Iginio; © Plot and OC by me**

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"I'm starting to hate being pregnant." Griffin rested her hand on her back. "And don't you dare tell me 'it'll all be worth it', because I am going to blast you out of that window if you do."

"Threat noted." Codatorta offered her his arm to help the couch. "And ignored." He grinned. "It'll all be worth it in the end."

She glared at him, grumbling something about obnoxious men. "I really don't know why I bother."

"Because you love me?" He sat down next to her, pulling her into his arms. His arms rested on her round belly.

"And I curse you every day for that." She belied her own words when she sighed in bliss when he started to massage her back with one hand. "My reputation is ruined."

"You and your reputation." He chuckled. "Will you ever enjoy my presence without complaining about that?"

Her long purple hair cascaded down his chest as she looked up at him, a warm and definitely un-Griffin smile on her face. "No, because the moment I do that, I no longer want you around."

"Then, by all means, do continue." He pressed a chaste kiss to her lips.

She chuckled and then gasped, her golden eyes widening in surprise. "Oh…"

"What is it?" He immediately was worried.

"Your child kicked." She took the hand not occupied with her back and maneuvered it on her belly. "There, again. Did you feel it?"

"I most certainly did." He stroked the bulge as another kick landed against his hand. "Someone is busy in there."

"Not any less than her father." Griffin laughed softly, burying her head in his neck.

"Not in front of little ones, Griffin." Codatorta admonished. "Besides, how can you be so certain it'll be a 'she'?"

"Womanly intuition." Griffin narrowed her eyes. "And the fact I can already feel magic in her."

"Perhaps he is a sorcerer?" Her husband countered. "While rare, it is not impossible."

"Are you calling me a liar?" His wife demanded.

"No, I'm calling you biased." He poked her nose.

"I can still do magic myself, you know. Besides, there are enough analytical spells available to check."

"Then why didn't you use them?" He asked, honestly curious. "Seven months should be far enough."

Her eyes dimmed, her laugh faded. "I'm afraid of what I'll find."

"And not that it'll be a boy. You're afraid it WILL be a she." He knew her well, very well. And she had become like an open book to him. But he couldn't explain this. "Why?"

"It had been a joke." She whispered. "A joke among friends. Faragonda and I… she and I had a bet going. You remember?"

"You mentioned it." After the first time they made love. Possibly even the time the child now growing in Griffin was conceived.

"If I won, she would not retaliate the next time my students pranked her school. If she won…" Griffin took a shuddering breath. "If she won, she would get to name my first daughter with you."

She stroked the taut skin of her own stomach. "It was a joke. But we both knew who would win: her bond with Alfea was so strong she could feel even the tiniest shift in emotion. Let alone who was and who wasn't a chosen one."

Her hands turned into fists. "And if I get a daughter, she won't be able to collect her prize. I do not know how to handle that. How will I handle that?"

He couldn't tell her that. Faragonda had been an ever-present constant in everybody's – or at the very least in the lives of anyone associated with the schools – live. A pillar of strength, a beacon of warmth. That she would ever be gone had been as impossible a notion as the absence of the Sun: you know it might come, but no matter how much you'd prepare, you would be unable to handle it. She had lived so long already, the strength of her magic sustaining her even through the worst storms. When most had been little children, she had already been an old woman.

"Give our daughter a name you know she'll like." He offered. "Name our daughter in her honor."

"A name she'd like…" Griffin snorted. "You do know what she would say now?"

"'Damnit, Griffin, that is your daughter, not mine.'" He smiled. "No?"

"Exactly." The witch sighed. "I might know a name though."

"And that'd be?"

"Faragonda. If we have a daughter, let's name her Faragonda."  
>"I think she really would have liked that."<p>

"And never let me forget about it either." She chuckled. "Well then, Faragonda, you better life up to the name."

She smiled weakly when her daughter kicked her as if to say 'you'll see: I'll do just that, mom. You just wait.'


	3. Realization of Alfea

**Category:**** Winx Club**

**Rating:**** T **

**Couples:**** Griffin/Codatorta**

**Warnings:**** AU**

**Chapter:**** Alfea's realization**

**Copyright:**** © characters and places by Iginio; © Plot and OC by me**

**Author's Note:**** I accept requests for scenes that were reasonably set between Forced Marriage 2 and Return to Magic. **

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

I screamed. I screamed like I never had done before. I raged, uncaring about anything. Fairies be damned. I had lost her! I had lost Faragonda!

It took me months to recover somewhat from that blow. It hurt like no loss before had done. She had been my oldest headmistress, surpassing most of the others by centuries.

Cloudtower and Red Fountain tried to support me, but how could they know how I felt? Their heads died relatively quickly, since they were more likely to enter a war or do some experiment that could go terribly wrong. Ragon, Cloudtower's headmaster before Griffin, got himself killed when he summoned some demons. Nearly got Saladin and Faragonda killed too. He lasted for three decades. The one before Saladin had been a Paladin named Darion who had died not five years after becoming headmaster. The one before Faragonda… she had been an exception. Shalley had been assassinated a few months after being chosen. She had died exactly 324 years, five months and 2 days ago. Ever since then Faragonda had been Alfea's headmistress. So long… it had been so long…

Over a year later I finally felt ready to renew the bond with someone else. I searched across the vastness of the Universe, seeking for her replacement.

Ironically, I was drawn to Earth, where she had died.

I shuddered.

Faragonda lived! Impossible!

Oh, curse whatever cruel deity had devised this. How could I ever return her to my side? She was bound to the demon, she would not leave him. And she bore his children too! I felt their life flow through her.

Oh, cruel fate! How dare you give me such hope? This was a hopeless yearning!

I ignored the siren-call that was her life-force and searched anew for a new Head. I came up empty. There were none. None that could match the standards Faragonda had set.

Cruel fate…

I searched for months, but there were none.

I gave up two years after she died. None could match her standards, and I would settle for nothing less.

My siblings called out to me, demanding again and again I rebond. I ignored them, did not even react to their ever more urgent pleas. I could not tell them. Our power waned, like how water would slowly seep out of a canister with a crack. I hogged my share of it, hoping that even as time passed I would get a second chance.

It was nine years later when I got another glimmer of hope: the Coven was stirring once more, rising from the shadows they had hidden themselves in. It could give me an excuse for his presence: a proof of his loyalty to her.

They struck faster than I could react.

I raged once more, but the long time without an outlet had left me weakened. Still, someone noticed.

This time I answered my brothers' call.


	4. First Bonding of Faragonda and Alfea

**Category: Winx Club**

**Rating: M**

**Couples: Faragonda/Baltor**

**Warnings: AU, Character Death**

**Chapter: Faragonda and Alfea's first bonding**

**Copyright: © characters and places by Iginio; © Plot and OC by me**

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

She was a late bloomer. Shalley mused as she looked out of the window of the spacious office. The young fairy was 16 and her powers had not yet come into fruition. But her family had insisted she already start at Alfea at any rate.

It frustrated the Headmistress to no end. At least the girl had some minor magic already. It would have been a complete disaster if she had not been able to follow classes at all.

She turned away from the window, and the fairy she had been studying. The girls name was Faragonda and she came from a relatively poor family. In fact, had it not be for some lucky coincidence, she would never have attended Alfea to begin with.

Shalley shook her head when she thought back to that conversation. It had been a quite literal case of 'girl picked off street to solve problem'. She still didn't quite get how a healthy girl could drop over dead, but she had no say in the matter.

The weekly meeting with her two colleagues came by and she pushed the young fairy out of her mind. Occasionally she would be reminded of the young woman of the Planet of Aserion, mostly because the teachers would tell her Faragonda – Fara for short – still hadn't transformed.

But then a completely different reminder came to her. War had broken out on Aserion, forcing the young fairy to return to her family.

It was on a night soon thereafter that Shalley was woken by something terrible: Alfea rose from her building, raging as if she had lost her Head. It obviously wasn't the case, because the woman was certain she was still breathing.

"Alfea!" Shalley cried out. "What is the meaning this?"

"Necessity." A young woman, spectral pink, rose from the floor. "Faragonda came into her powers."

"What does this have to do with THIS?" Shalley pointed outside where the first dragons from Red Fountain were arriving. "I still live!"

"And therein lays the problem, Shalley." The many voices that made Alfea's echoed in the room. "I cannot allow Faragonda to use her own powers. It must be prevented at all costs. Even that of your life."

"WHAT?" No fairy is a match for the unrestrained power of a School, not even its' own Head. Shalley died that night. No one knew save Alfea that the dagger suddenly resting in the woman's heart was not the dagger of an assassin, but rather a weapon she herself had summoned to kill her own Headmistress. She would tell no one of what happened that day. Not even Faragonda, whom she claimed the moment the girl set foot on Campus again.

Alfea was not a fool. She knew the consequences. You don't have the wisdom of every human you were ever bonded too without knowing a thing or two about 'prices'. Shalley never spoke to her again though, even after being explained why her death was necessary.

She never told Faragonda either, though she suspected the fairy knew something was up. The fact that the youngest of the Schools had claimed a girl who had only used her power the first time days earlier had to have been a big pointer.

But a School has one great weakness: the Bond works both ways. Both give something in exchange for it. The Head will have to live with the fact that his or her entire life is dictated by the School, from lover to thought. The School will become a source of power… and knowledge.

If Faragonda ever found out how Shalley had died, she never mentioned it. Neither did Alfea. There was nothing to say or do about the fate of the fairy.


	5. Faragonda's Reaction to Hagen's Death

**Category: Winx Club**

**Rating: M**

**Couples: Faragonda/Baltor, Hints of Onesided Faragonda/Hagen**

**Warnings: AU, Character Death**

**Chapter: Faragonda's reaction to Hagen's Death**

**Copyright: © characters and places by Iginio; © Plot and OC by me**

**Author's note: This is a early B-day Gift for my good friend Shimizuggi (whose name still sucks XD). I'll congratulate you on your actual B-day, sweety :D**

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

She was heartbroken: Hagen had died believing her to be lost to a terrible fate. He had killed himself because he thought she would be lost forever. She could never forgive herself for that. Baltor had left her alone after she had learned that, subtly pulling along their daughters to 'show them Alfea'. But even they knew that this was something Faragonda had to be alone for.

Hagen was dead. Now she did not regret the outburst during which she had killed the Coven. She had never told anyone that, but Hagen had been one of her Chosen. He could have given her children if she had given herself to him. But while she had loved him it had been more the love of a sister. Well, on her part at the least. He on the other hand had loved her like one would a lover. And that had killed him. Even if it had been the Coven who had delivered the killing-blow.

She knew him, knew that he would have turned suicidal after he learned what happened to her. Thank heavens he never witnessed her death. That would have truly turned him into a danger to himself and all around him.

A soft meow caused her to look up. She smiled weakly when she saw the pink spectral cat. The kitten tilted its' head, before jumping up the couch to join the woman.

"Well hello there, Alfea." Faragonda touched the cat, smiling when she noticed it was still solid. "Come to cheer me up?"

"Someone has to." Her school spoke in her mind, the sound of her voice accompanied by the purring of the cat.

"You have always been weird. Red Fountain or Cloudtower would never go to the lengths you do to keep their Heads happy." Faragonda pulled up her legs, tucking them under her.

"They never had Heads for the duration of centuries." Alfea countered. "Theirs die like flies."

"Alfea!" The fairy admonished.

"Sue me, but it's the truth." The cat seemed to shrug. "Although I do wonder what possessed me when I gave you a demon for a Chosen. Told you you should have gone for Hagen."

"Both of us would have been unhappy then." Faragonda pointed out. "I never loved him, Alfea. Not the way he should have been."

"But you did with Baltor, didn't you?" The spectral cat looked up, her blue eyes in stark contrast with the rest of her body.

"Yes."

A soft knock sounded on the door. The cat looked up, before fading out of existence.

"Enter." The fairy called.

Baltor opened the door. "Can I come in?"

"Always." She reached for him, needing the warmth he always brought her. "Where are the girls?"

"Acquainting themselves with the children of the Winx and Griffin." He sat down on the couch beside her. "How are you?"

"I needed a good cry." She snuggled close, sighing when his arms automatically closed around her. "He was always just like a brother to me, but he loved me. He loved me with the same devotion you do now."

"Which man cannot love you?" The demon stroked her long hair. "You are one of those women it is near impossible to hate."

"Slime-ball." She whispered, but she couldn't keep the smile off of her face. "You might be terrible at showing your emotions, but you are terribly sweet when the situation calls for it."

"What can I say? You ruined me." He answered her smile with one of his own. "You up for leaving these rooms? I have a feeling we shouldn't have left the girls alone."

"Good point." She said, freeing herself from his arms. "I need to do that too. How are they?"

"Terrified of me." He shrugged. "I was the demon of their nightmares, Siren. It was to be expected."

"And Griffin's child?" She left her rooms with him on her heels.

"A child of both her and Codatorta, but the little one has more of him than her. From what I gather she lived up to her name." He rested his arm around her waist. "Griffin sounded less amused when she told me about some of her daughter's escapades."

"Can you blame her?" Faragonda rested her head against his shoulder. "She always felt she needed to set an example for the younger witches and I doubt that changed."

"True that." He led the way to the room that had once been the dining-hall of Alfea, but after the recent battle it was being used as a healing-hall, where Bloom, Baltor and other people with a gift for healing tended to the wounded.

Now, days later, it was very nearly empty, most having been moved to the hospitals of Magix or having fully recovered. In between the few occupied beds the children were running around.

A boy with red hair was chasing most of the others, weaving through the room.

"Bloom's oldest." Baltor softly said, after which he pointed out the other children.

"Faragonda." Miriam greeted her, but her smile was somewhat forced. It would be quite a while until they would be comfortable around Baltor.


End file.
